The McKee Gymnasium on Hitt Street was once home to the women’s natatorium or swimming pool on campus. Now home to the MU Theatre’s Studio 4, the first full production to be performed in the new venue maintains that aquatic connection.

In May 1804, Army officers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and a hardy bunch of explorers, French boatmen, soldiers, and Clark’s slave, York, began their momentous journey from St. Louis, traveling up the Missouri River to explore the new lands acquired by the Louisiana Purchase. Following their return to St. Louis in 1806, both men were instrumental in creating the future state of Missouri, although only Clark lived long enough to witness statehood in 1821.

The 1970 murder of a Kansas City civil rights activist, which was solved by two reporters from The Kansas City Star 41 years later, is the subject of a new play opening at the Rhynsburger Theatre this week. Leon Jordan was a co-founder of the Kansas City-based civil rights organization Freedom, Inc., a state legislator, and a police officer.

David Geary and his team found that as societies become wealthier and more gender equal, women are less likely to obtain degrees in STEM.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The underrepresentation of girls and women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields occurs globally. Although women currently are well represented in life sciences, they continue to be underrepresented in inorganic sciences, such as computer science and physics.

Susan Nagel and her team released a study that found that female mice exposed to mixtures of chemicals used in UOG operations during prenatal development had abnormal mammary glands in adulthood.

Sixteen students who have declared Arts and Science (A&S) majors make up the inaugural class of the college’s new Student Ambassador Leadership Program. These students will represent the college and the A&S student body and student experience at admission, recruiting, donor, and other major events hosted by the college, such as its Beyond Campus events in St.

Bill Horner, a teaching professor of political science, has created the Office of Participatory Democracy to lend support to activities which give students the opportunity to apply lessons learned in the classroom to more practical situations.

When it comes to faculty advisers, Bill Horner has been the go-to guy in political science. Every few years, the MU professor says he has been approached by members of a student organization seeking a faculty adviser. Horner says it started about a dozen years ago, when a student asked him to be the faculty adviser for Mizzou’s Model United Nations (UN) organization.

Scott Frey reports in a new study that higher-level regions of the brain may compensate for persistent reorganizational changes in brain areas responsible for hand sensation and movement. These and other findings have led to a new $1.7 million grant from the Department of Defense.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – When a person loses a hand, nerves that control sensation and movement are severed. This trauma deprives sensory and movement areas of the brain of stimulation, causing them to reorganize their functions. Whether these reorganizational changes can be reversed in the adult brain is of broad relevance to neurorehabilitation.

The 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, was one of the most destructive in U.S. history—killing 161 people, injuring 1,150 and destroying approximately one-third of the city’s homes.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The 2011 tornado in Joplin, Missouri, was one of the most destructive in U.S. history—killing 161 people, injuring 1,150 and destroying approximately one-third of the city’s homes. Individuals who experience such disasters can exhibit a range of mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress.

2017

Forty years ago this month, Melodie Powell, BA ’77, JD ’81, received her bachelor’s degree in French during commencement exercises in the Hearnes Center. On Friday, Powell will return to the Hearnes Center to deliver the commencement address to the Class of 2017.

Geology doctoral student Aaron Morrison eventually will go the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to expand upon the experiments he will begin at MU studying the rheology of cryovolcanoes.

We are all familiar with the terrestrial or rocky planets in our solar system—Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, as well as a number of terrestrial satellites such as our moon or Jupiter’s moon, Io, but far less is known about the icy water worlds that populate our solar system.

Pat Okker was named dean of the College of Arts & Science, effective immediately.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – University of Missouri Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Garnett S. Stokes announced today that Patricia Okker, professor of English and interim dean of the College of Arts and Science, has been named dean of the College of Arts and Science, effective immediately.

The College of Arts and Science Student Council honored two professors and an academic adviser with Chalk Awards for the fall 2017 semester. The student council solicits nominations from students for their favorite instructors and advisers, and the council’s executive committee makes the final selections. The student council will present plaques to the latest Chalk Award winners during its trivia night contest in Stotler Lounge in Memorial Union, Nov. 16.

MU Chancellor Alexander Cartwright congratulates Lt. Col. Gary Kerr, the department head of the MU Army ROTC program, during the announcement of new Mizzou ROTC scholarships at Crowder Hall.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Today, University of Missouri Chancellor Alexander Cartwright and Lt. Col. Gary Kerr, professor of military science and leadership and department head for the University Army ROTC, announced a new Mizzou ROTC Scholarship that will expand higher education access and affordability at MU.

Graduate student Ben Julius harvests corn as part of his research to uncover genes that control sugar transport in plants.

For corn geneticists like Ben Julius, fall means one thing: harvest time. Although the hard, dry ears of corn that Julius picks are not meant for consumption, he hopes one of these ears holds the secret to the mouthwatering sweet corn Missourians look forward to each summer.

When most Missourians think of the Missouri National Guard, they picture guard members filling sandbags or helping transport affected citizens during the floods of 1993, but the organization’s role has expanded since 9/11. Guard members now continually serve around the world, though the state mission remains key, including responding to emergencies such as the Mississippi River flooding of June 2008 and the January 2009 ice storms across much of southern Missouri.